22 For Jehovah will not cast away his people for his great name's sake; because it has pleased Jehovah to make you his people.
Yet he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make known his might.
and I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.
Not because ye were more in number than all the peoples, hath Jehovah been attached to you and chosen you, for ye are the fewest of all the peoples; but because Jehovah loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath Jehovah brought you out with a powerful hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
For thy name's sake, do not spurn [us], do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us.
Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, For misfortune he has brought them out, to slay them on the mountains, and to annihilate them from the face of the earth? Turn from the heat of thine anger, and repent of this evil against thy people!
For thou art a holy people unto Jehovah thy God, and thee hath Jehovah chosen for a people of possession unto himself, out of all the peoples that are upon the face of the earth.
For the Lord will not cast off for ever; but if he have caused grief, he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses:
But I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they were, in whose sight I had made myself known unto them in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt.
that we should be to [the] praise of his glory who have pre-trusted in the Christ:
having confidence of this very thing, that he who has begun in you a good work will complete it unto Jesus Christ's day:
according as it is written, I have loved Jacob, and I have hated Esau. What shall we say then? [Is there] unrighteousness with God? Far be the thought. For he says to Moses, I will shew mercy to whom I will shew mercy, and I will feel compassion for whom I will feel compassion. So then [it is] not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shews mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, For this very thing I have raised thee up from amongst [men], that I might thus shew in thee my power, and so that my name should be declared in all the earth. So then, to whom he will he shews mercy, and whom he will he hardens.
[Let your] conversation [be] without love of money, satisfied with [your] present circumstances; for *he* has said, I will not leave thee, neither will I forsake thee.
For who makes thee to differ? and what hast thou which thou hast not received? but if also thou hast received, why boastest thou as not receiving?
And I will bring the blind by a way that they know not, in paths that they know not will I lead them; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.
And Moses said to Jehovah, Then the Egyptians will hear it; for in thy might thou broughtest up this people from the midst of them; and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land, [who] have heard that thou, Jehovah, art in the midst of this people, that thou, Jehovah, lettest thyself be seen eye to eye, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night; if thou now slayest this people as one man, then the nations that have heard thy fame will speak, saying, Because Jehovah was not able to bring this people into the land that he had sworn unto them, he has therefore slain them in the wilderness. And now, I beseech thee, let the power of the Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, Jehovah is slow to anger, and abundant in goodness, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing [the guilty], visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and fourth [generation]. Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy loving-kindness, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.
Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thy heart, dost thou enter in to possess their land, but for the wickedness of these nations doth Jehovah thy God dispossess them from before thee, and that he may perform the word which Jehovah swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
And my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them, and they will say in that day, Have not these evils befallen me because my God is not in my midst?
I would say, I will scatter, I will make the remembrance of them to cease from among men, If I did not fear provocation from the enemy, Lest their adversaries should misunderstand it, Lest they should say, Our hand is high, and Jehovah has not done all this.
And I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies;
And thou, Solomon my son, know the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind; for Jehovah searches all hearts, and discerns all the imaginations of the thoughts. If thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cut thee off for ever.
And I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.
The afflicted and the needy seek water, and there is none; their tongue faileth for thirst: I, Jehovah, will answer them, [I], the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
And now, if ye will hearken to my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then shall ye be my own possession out of all the peoples -- for all the earth is mine -- and ye shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak to the children of Israel.
-- I, I [am] He that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and I will not remember thy sins.
For mine own sake, for mine own sake, will I do [it]; for how should [my name] be profaned? and I will not give my glory unto another.
Hast thou not seen what this people have spoken, saying, The two families that Jehovah had chosen, he hath even cast them off? And they despise my people, that they should be no more a nation before them. Thus saith Jehovah: If my covenant of day and night [stand] not, if I have not appointed the ordinances of the heavens and the earth, [then] will I also cast away the seed of Jacob, and of David my servant, so as not to take of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will turn their captivity, and will have mercy on them.
Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, dost thou forsake us so long time?
Yea, Father, for thus has it been well-pleasing in thy sight.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on 1 Samuel 12
Commentary on 1 Samuel 12 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Samuel's Address at the Renewal of the Monarchy - 1 Samuel 12
Samuel closed this solemn confirmation of Saul as king with an address to all Israel, in which he handed over the office of judge, which he had hitherto filled, to the king, who had been appointed by God and joyfully recognised by the people. The good, however, which Israel expected from the king depended entirely upon both the people and their king maintaining that proper attitude towards the Lord with which the prosperity of Israel was ever connected. This truth the prophet felt impelled to impress most earnestly upon the hearts of all the people on this occasion. To this end he reminded them, that neither he himself, in the administration of his office, nor the Lord in His guidance of Israel thus far, had given the people any reason for asking a king when the Ammonites invaded the land (1 Samuel 12:1-12). Nevertheless the Lord had given them a king, and would not withdraw His hand from them, if they would only fear Him and confess their sin (1 Samuel 12:13-15). This address was then confirmed by the Lord at Samuel's desire, through a miraculous sign (1 Samuel 12:16-18); whereupon Samuel gave to the people, who were terrified by the miracle and acknowledged their sin, the comforting promise that the Lord would not forsake His people for His great name's sake, and then closed his address with the assurance of his continued intercession, and a renewed appeal to them to serve the Lord with faithfulness (1 Samuel 12:19-25). With this address Samuel laid down his office as judge, but without therefore ceasing as prophet to represent the people before God, and to maintain the rights of God in relation to the king. In this capacity he continued to support the king with his advice, until he was compelled to announce his rejection on account of his repeated rebellion against the commands of the Lord, and to anoint David as his successor.
The time and place of the following address are not given. But it is evident from the connection with the preceding chapter implied in the expression ויּאמר , and still more from the introduction (1 Samuel 12:1, 1 Samuel 12:2) and the entire contents of the address, that it was delivered on the renewal of the monarchy at Gilgal.
1 Samuel 12:1-2
Samuel starts with the fact, that he had given the people a king in accordance with their own desire, who would now walk before them. הנּה with the participle expresses what is happening, and will happen still. לפני התהלּך must not be restricted to going at the head in war, but signifies the general direction and government of the nation, which had been in the hands of Samuel as judge before the election of Saul as king. “ And I have grown old and grey ( שׂבתּי from שׂיב ); and my sons, behold, they are with you .” With this allusion to his sons, Samuel simply intended to confirm what he had said about his own age. By the further remark, “ and I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day ,” he prepares the way for the following appeal to the people to bear witness concerning his conduct in office.
1 Samuel 12:3
“ Bear witness against me before the Lord ,” i.e., looking up to the Lord, the omnipotent and righteous God-king, “ and before His anointed ,” the visible administrator of His divine government, whether I have committed any injustice in my office of judge, by appropriating another's property, or by oppression and violence ( רצץ , to pound or crush in pieces, when used to denote an act of violence, is stronger than אשׁק , with which it is connected here and in many other passages, e.g., Deuteronomy 28:33; Amos 4:1), or by taking atonement money ( כּפר , redemption or atonement money, is used, as in Exodus 21:30 and Numbers 35:31, to denote a payment made by a man to redeem himself from capital punishment), “ so that I had covered my eyes with it ,” viz., to exempt from punishment a man who was worthy of death. The בּו , which is construed with העלים , is the בּ instrumenti , and refers to כּפר ; consequently it is not to be confounded with מן , “to hide from,” which would be quite unsuitable here. The thought is not that the judge covers his eyes from the copher , that he may not see the bribe, but that he covers his eyes with the money offered him as a bribe, so as not to see and not to punish the crime committed.
1 Samuel 12:4
The people answered Samuel, that he had not done them any kind of injustice.
1 Samuel 12:5
To confirm this declaration on the part of the people, he then called Jehovah and His anointed as witnesses against the people, and they accepted these witnesses. כּל־ישׂראל is the subject to ויּאמר ; and the Keri ויּאמרוּ , though more simple, is by no means necessary. Samuel said, “ Jehovah be witness against you ,” because with the declaration which the people had made concerning Samuel's judicial labours they had condemned themselves, inasmuch as they had thereby acknowledged on oath that there was no ground for their dissatisfaction with Samuel's administration, and consequently no well-founded reason for their request for a king.
1 Samuel 12:6
But in order to bring the people to a still more thorough acknowledgment of their sin, Samuel strengthened still more their assent to his solemn appeal to God, as expressed in the words “ He is witness ,” by saying, “ Jehovah (i.e., yea, the witness is Jehovah), who made Moses and Aaron, and brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt .” The context itself is sufficient to show that the expression “is witness” is understood; and there is no reason, therefore, to assume that the word has dropped out of the text through a copyist's error. עשׂה , to make, in a moral and historical sense, i.e., to make a person what he is to be; it has no connection, therefore, with his physical birth, but simply relates to his introduction upon the stage of history, like ποιεῖν , Hebrews 3:2. But if Jehovah, who redeemed Israel out of Egypt by the hands of Moses and Aaron, and exalted it into His own nation, was witness of the unselfishness and impartiality of Samuel's conduct in his office of judge, then Israel had grievously sinned by demanding a king. In the person of Samuel they had rejected Jehovah their God, who had given them their rulers (see 1 Samuel 8:7). Samuel proves this still further to the people from the following history.
“ And now come hither, and I will reason with you before the Lord with regard to all the righteous acts which He has shown to you and your fathers .” צדקות , righteous acts, is the expression used to denote the benefits which Jehovah had conferred upon His people, as being the results of His covenant fidelity, or as acts which attested the righteousness of the Lord in the fulfilment of the covenant grace which He had promised to His people.
1 Samuel 12:8-12
The first proof of this was furnished by the deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt, and their safe guidance into Canaan (“ this place ” is the land of Canaan). The second was to be found in the deliverance of the people out of the power of their foes, to whom the Lord had been obliged to give them up on account of their apostasy from Him, through the judges whom He had raised up for them, as often as they turned to Him with penitence and cried to Him for help. Of the hostile oppressions which overtook the Israelites during this period of the judges, the following are singled out in 1 Samuel 12:9 : (1) that by Sisera, the commander-in-chief of Hazor, i.e., that of the Canaanitish king Jabin of Hazor (Judges 4:2.); (2) that of the Philistines, by which we are to understand not so much the hostilities of that nation described in Judges 3:31, as the forty years' oppression mentioned in Judges 10:2 and Judges 13:1; and (3) the Moabitish oppression under Eglon ( Judges 3:12.). The first half of Judges 13:10 agrees almost word for word with Judges 10:10, except that, according to Judges 10:6, the Ashtaroth are added to the Baalim (see at 1 Samuel 7:4 and Judges 2:13). Of the judges whom God sent to the people as deliverers, the following are named, viz., Jerubbaal (see at Judges 6:32), i.e., Gideon (Judg 6), and Bedan, and Jephthah (see Judg 11), and Samuel. There is no judge named Bedan mentioned either in the book of Judges or anywhere else. The name Bedan only occurs again in 1 Chronicles 7:17, among the descendants of Machir the Manassite: consequently some of the commentators suppose Jair of Gilead to be the judge intended. But such a supposition is perfectly arbitrary, as it is not rendered probable by any identity in the two names, and Jair is not described as having delivered Israel from any hostile oppression. Moreover, it is extremely improbable that Samuel should have mentioned a judge here, who had been passed over in the book of Judges on account of his comparative insignificance. There is also just as little ground for rendering Bedan as an appellative, e.g., the Danite ( ben-Dan ), as Kimchi suggests, or corpulentus as Böttcher maintains, and so connecting the name with Samson. There is no other course left, therefore, than to regard Bedan as an old copyist's error for Barak (Judg 4), as the lxx, Syriac, and Arabic have done, - a conclusion which is favoured by the circumstance that Barak was one of the most celebrated of the judges, and is placed by the side of Gideon and Jephthah in Hebrews 11:32. The Syriac, Arabic, and one Greek MS (see Kennicott in the Addenda to his Dissert. Gener .), have the name of Samson instead of Samuel . But as the lxx, Chald., and Vulg. all agree with the Hebrew text, there is no critical ground for rejecting Samuel, the more especially as the objection raised to it, viz., that Samuel would not have mentioned himself, is far too trivial to overthrow the reading supported by the most ancient versions; and the assertion made by Thenius, that Samuel does not come down to his own times until the following verse, is altogether unfounded. Samuel could very well class himself with the deliverers of Israel, for the simple reason that it was by him that the people were delivered from the forty years' tyranny of the Philistines, whilst Samson merely commenced their deliverance and did not bring it to completion. Samuel appears to have deliberately mentioned his own name along with those of the other judges who were sent by God, that he might show the people in the most striking manner (1 Samuel 12:12) that they had no reason whatever for saying to him, “ Nay, but a king shall reign over us ,” as soon as the Ammonites invaded Gilead. “ As Jehovah your God is your king ,” i.e., has ever proved himself to be your King by sending judges to deliver you.
After the prophet had thus held up before the people their sin against the Lord, he bade them still further consider, that the king would only procure for them the anticipated deliverance if they would fear the Lord, and give up their rebellion against God.
1 Samuel 12:13
“ But now behold the king whom ye have chosen, whom ye have asked for! behold, Jehovah hath set a king over you .” By the second והנּה , the thought is brought out still more strongly, that Jehovah had fulfilled the desire of the people. Although the request of the people had been an act of hostility to God, yet Jehovah had fulfilled it. The word בּהרתּם , relating to the choice by lot (1 Samuel 10:17.), is placed before שׁאלתּם אשׁר , to show that the demand was the strongest act that the people could perform. They had not only chosen the king with the consent or by the direction of Samuel; they had even demanded a king of their own self-will.
1 Samuel 12:14
Still, since the Lord had given them a king, the further welfare of the nation would depend upon whether they would follow the Lord from that time forward, or whether they would rebel against Him again. “ If ye will only fear the Lord, and serve Him, ... and ye as well as the king who rules over you will be after Jehovah your God .” אם , in the sense of modo , if only, does not require any apodosis, as it is virtually equivalent to the wish, “ O that ye would only! ” for which אם with the imperfect is commonly used (vid., 2 Kings 20:19; Proverbs 24:11, etc.; and Ewald , §329, b .). There is also nothing to be supplied to יהוה אחר ... והיתם , since אחר היה , to be after or behind a person, is good Hebrew, and is frequently met with, particularly in the sense of attaching one's self to the king, or holding to him (vid., 2 Samuel 2:10; 1 Kings 12:20; 1 Kings 16:21-22). This meaning is also at the foundation of the present passage, as Jehovah was the God-king of Israel.
1 Samuel 12:15
“ But if ye do not hearken to the voice of Jehovah, and strive against His commandment, the hand of Jehovah will be heavy upon you, as upon your fathers .” ו in the sense of as, i.e., used in a comparative sense, is most frequently placed before whole sentences (see Ewald , §340, b .); and the use of it here may be explained, on the ground that בּאבתיכם contains the force of an entire sentence: “ as it was upon your fathers .” The allusion to the fathers is very suitable here, because the people were looking to the king for the removal of all the calamities, which had fallen upon them from time immemorial. The paraphrase of this word, which is adopted in the Septuagint, ἐπὶ τὸν βασιλέα ὑμῶν , is a very unhappy conjecture, although Thenius proposes to alter the text to suit it.
1 Samuel 12:16-17
In order to give still greater emphasis to his words, and to secure their lasting, salutary effect upon the people, Samuel added still further: Even now ye may see that ye have acted very wickedly in the sight of Jehovah, in demanding a king. This chain of thought is very clearly indicated by the words גּם־עתּה , “ yea, even now .” “ Even now come hither, and see this great thing which Jehovah does before your eyes .” The words גּם־עתּה , which are placed first, belong, so far as the sense is concerned, to את־הד ראוּ ; and התיצּבוּ (“ place yourselves ,” i.e., make yourselves ready) is merely inserted between, to fix the attention of the people more closely upon the following miracle, as an event of great importance, and one which they ought to lay to heart. “ Is it not now wheat harvest? I will call to Jehovah, that He may give thunder ( קלוה , as in Exodus 9:23, etc.) and rain. Then perceive and see, that the evil is great which ye have done in the eyes of Jehovah, to demand a king .” The wheat harvest occurs in Palestine between the middle of May and the middle of June (see by Bibl. Arch. i. §118). And during this time it scarcely ever rains. Thus Jerome affirms ( ad Am . c. 4): “ Nunquam in fine mensis Junii aut in Julio in his provinciis maximeque in Judaea pluvias vidimus .” And Robinson also says in his Palestine (ii. p. 98): “In ordinary seasons, from the cessation of the showers in spring until their commencement in October and November, rain never falls, and the sky is usually serene” (see my Arch. i. §10). So that when God sent thunder and rain on that day in answer to Samuel's appeal to him, this was a miracle of divine omnipotence, intended to show to the people that the judgments of God might fall upon the sinners at any time. Thunderings, as “the voice of God” (Exodus 9:28), are harbingers of judgment.
This miracle therefore inspired the people with a salutary terror. “ All the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel ,” and entreated the prophet, “ Pray for thy servants to the Lord thy God, that we die not, because we have added to all our sins the evil thing, to ask us a king .”
Samuel thereupon announced to them first of all, that the Lord would not forsake His people for His great name's sake, if they would only serve Him with uprightness. In order, however, to give no encouragement to any false trust in the covenant faithfulness of the Lord, after the comforting words, “ Fear not ,” he told them again very decidedly that they had done wrong, but that now they were not to turn away from the Lord, but to serve Him with all their heart, and not go after vain idols. To strengthen this admonition, he repeats the תּסוּרוּ לא in 1 Samuel 12:21, with the explanation, that in turning from the Lord they would fall away to idols, which could not bring them either help or deliverance. To the כּי after תּסוּרוּ the same verb must be supplied from the context: “ Do not turn aside (from the Lord), for (ye turn aside) after that which is vain .” התּהוּ , the vain, worthless thing, signifies the false gods . This will explain the construction with a plural: “ which do not profit and do not save, because they are emptiness ” ( tohu ), i.e., worthless beings ( elilim , Leviticus 19:4; cf. Isaiah 44:9 and Jeremiah 16:19).
“ For ( כּי gives the reason for the main thought of the previous verse, 'Fear not, but serve the Lord,' etc.) the Lord will not forsake His people for His great name's sake; for it hath pleased the Lord (for הואיל , see at Deuteronomy 1:5) to make you His people .” The emphasis lies upon His . This the Israelites could only be, when they proved themselves to be the people of God, by serving Jehovah with all their heart. “ For His great name's sake ,” i.e., for the great name which He had acquired in the sight of all the nations, by the marvellous guidance of Israel thus far, to preserve it against misapprehension and blasphemy (see at Joshua 7:9).
Samuel then promised the people his constant intercession: “ Far be it from me to sin against the Lord, that I should cease to pray for you, and to instruct you in the good and right way ,” i.e., to work as prophet for your good. “In this he sets a glorious example to all rulers, showing them that they should not be led astray by the ingratitude of their subordinates or subjects, and give up on that account all interest in their welfare, but should rather persevere all the more in their anxiety for them” ( Berleb. Bible ).
Lastly, he repeats once more his admonition, that they would continue stedfast in the fear of God, threatening at the same time the destruction of both king and people if they should do wrong (on 1 Samuel 12:24 , see 1 Samuel 7:3 and Joshua 24:14, where the form יראוּ is also found). “ For see what great things He has done for you ” (shown to you), not by causing it to thunder and rain at Samuel's prayer, but by giving them a king. עם הגדּיל , as in Genesis 19:19.